Quirkblog

Another Nero Wolfe mystery, this one from the 1950’s. Even though this is obviously much later in Rex Stout’s career, he made a conscious decision to not have his characters age over time. Archie has still worked for Wolfe for about ten years. Archie is still in his late 20’s, early 30’s, Wolfe is in his mid-to-late 50’s. The only changes to the brownstone and the rest of the environment is the presence of a television set which Wolfe never watches for more than a minute or two at a time before he turns it off in disgust.
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And it’s back to the Nero Wolfe mysteries for the 15th book of the season. This one gets its title from The Rubiayat of Omar Khayyam, specifically the line “I sometimes think that never blows so red The Rose as where some buried Caesar bled” – although in this case the Caesar in question is a prizewinning bull named Hickory Caesar Grindon.
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This is book three of the Temeraire series, and book 14 of the Books 2010 project. This installment sees Captain Laurence and Temeraire recalled from their diplomatic mission to China. They are to stop in Istanbul and receive three dragon’s eggs that the British have purchased from the Sultan after years of negotiation. The details are scanty, but the wording of their orders is clear and urgent – they are to depart at once. Unfortunately, the dragon carrier that brought them to China has been damaged, and won’t be seaworthy for months. Laurence and Temeraire decide to emulate Marco Polo and make the journey to Europe over land.
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Lucky book thirteen of the Books 2010 project, and reviewed on the 13th as well… Not that there’s any significance to that, of course.

This is the sequel to Charles Stross’ book The Atrocity Archive, and it continues to follow the life of Bob Howard. Bob is a computer geek, a systems administrator, a civil servant and a member of a highly secret British government agency tasked with preventing incursions of brain-devouring Creatures from Beyond. Stross does a masterful job combining Lovecraftian horrors, computer geekery, spy adventure and government bureaucracy into a fun universe.
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Book Twelve of the Books 2010 project is a collection of four urban fantasy novellas. The main draw for us was the Jim Butcher’s story, “The Warrior,” set in the Harry Dresden universe. It was a great addition to the continuity of the Dresden series, but I don’t think it would work well as a standalone story – without the knowledge of the greater continuity, there’s just too much background knowledge to fit into sixty some pages. If this were the first Dresden Files story I’d ever read, I’d be completely lost.
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